1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sports boards, and more particularly to collapsible sports boards, and still more particularly to a foldable sports board having two or more separable sections and a post-tensioning system incorporated into the board for coupling the separable sections.
2. Discussion of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR §§1.97, 1.98
Travel with bulky articles can be challenging and frustrating. In some instances, it can be expensive, as in air travel, in which surcharges can be imposed for oversized baggage. There is an almost universal desire by travelers to have and carry articles that are lightweight, easy to handle, and that fit into tight storage compartments and automobile trunks, and that may even be carried manageably and safely on motorcycles and bicycles, and also to avoid theft by not having to use rooftop car racks. Efforts to provide such apparatus are known. For instance:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,568 to Simms describes an inflatable surfboard that may be deflated easy and convenient travel. The collapsible surfboard includes an elongate inflatable bladder having a shape generally corresponding to a surfboard and having an elongate pocket. An elongate beam provides stiffening when the inflatable bladder is inflated. The elongate beam is removably insertable in the elongate pocket of the inflatable bladder.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,909 to Meyerhoffer teaches a system of interchangeable components includes various front panels, rear panels, adaptors, and interfaces that can be variably and removably assembled to form various customized waterboards with various performance characteristics. The coupling is temporary so that a waterboard can be disassembled and its front panel and/or rear panel used to create other waterboards.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,868 to Schagen, shows a sailboard having a hull assembled of several separable hull sections longitudinally clamped together with two tensioning cables extending inside two horizontally spaced longitudinal spine tubes. The tubes are joined by means of connecting sleeves, for a torsion-resistant connection between the hull sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,549 to Rhodes, et al, teaches a collapsible hull for a surfboard having sections joined at double chevron surfaces and maintained together by a post-tensioning cable disposed circumferentially around the assembled hull to function as a clamp. The double chevron surface is used to prevent relative movement in two axes, and the post-tensioning cable retains the sections together and prevents relative movement in the third axis.
However, none of the prior art reference shows a lightweight, collapsible or foldable sports board, or more particularly a surfboard, that can be molded or constructed using standard surfboard foam blanks, or that can be shaped by hand, by a computer aided CNC shaping machine to easily form any size or shape surfboard, suitable for use in heavy surf or for performance surfing, i.e., use by a surfer with considerable skill who (when “ripping”) will invariably place sudden and significant tension, compression, and torsional loads on the board through rapid accelerations and carving, aerial maneuvers, and (unfortunately) falls. Accordingly, the surfboard industry in particular continues to seek ways to make surfboards stronger and yet more transportable.
Despite the foregoing efforts, and while portability and transportability are highly desirable, it would be preferable to have a board with such features without compromising the performance capabilities, strength, and durability of the board. To that end the present invention has been conceived and developed.